Elsewhere

How to fix a quarterback's throwing motion, and how not to: "Having to watch a very talented sophomore quarterback struggle with his mechanics that season pushed me to a path of pursuit on how to teach the perfect throwing motion. As I began my research through clinics, DVD's, books, college visits, and local guru's, I had compiled a list of coaching points like, 'Stand tall, step small'; 'Flick the booger of the finger'; 'Pick the dollar out of the left pocket'; 'Turn the key'; 'Answer the phone with ball'; 'Crush pebbles with your feet'; 'Slap the wall'; 'watch how Brady, Montana, or Elway throw' and the list goes on and on." [Smart Football]

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Jared Weaver, five years, $85 milion: "He has job security, avoids a contentious offseason arbitration hearing, and is guaranteed five years of no-trade protection. Best of all, he can ignore the yapping narcissistic east coast media deluding itself into assuming that good players immediately want to sign with teams located in the humidity-strangled urban hellholes left over from the horse and buggy stenched days of the early industrial revolution." [Halos Heaven]

This:

Weaver's deal, in context: "It's quite clear the Angels are getting a competitive level of production, particularly in terms of present talent, for their money as the Mariners and Tigers are. And all three of these contracts look to be bargains, as each pays for roughly four wins worth of talent for pitchers establishing performance levels above five wins, at least as judged by Wins Above Replacement. But we can't ignore the massive age difference between Weaver (and Verlander) and Hernandez. The Angels (and Tigers) are getting a great deal on their aces, particularly early, but they need the results now given the uncertainties with tricenarian pitchers, as the contracts carry the recipients through their age-32 seasons. It's simply remarkable that the Mariners were able to lock up such a young talent in the 25-year-old Hernandez at a similar value as other elite pitchers who will soon enter their thirties." [FanGraphs]

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Friends of Deadspin to join, um, Bleacher Report: "Today, Bleacher Report has pushed that mandate further as they have announced the launch of its new Lead Writer Program. According to Bleacher Report, ‘Lead Writers will help give direction and guidance to the company's vast contributor base, as well as shape content and conversation with readers through social media platforms.'" [Biz of Baseball]

Your Monkey Punching a Capybara Interlude:

The Pirates signed a guy to a long-term deal in the most Pirates way imaginable: "The key thing that we've learned since Friday is that the base six-year deal includes 2011, which means that the base deal doesn't buy out any of his free agent years. Those years are covered by the three team options. All this really means is that the deal isn't quite as team-friendly as it seemed on Friday, though buying out all of Tabata's team-controlled years for $15 million and getting three team options on the first three years of his free agency is still a great deal for the Pirates. It's still one-sided enough in the Pirates' favor that Tabata had to part ways with his agent to sign it, which is a good indication of how much the final contract favors the Pirates." [WHYGAVS]

LeBron didn't like losing to the Mavericks: "How was the week following the defeat at the Finals? LJ: 'It was the worst week I ever had. I hate losing.' What did you do? LJ: 'I did nothing. Nothing at all.' [SLAM]

Blasphemy (and inevitability) in Denver!: "From the people's choice to start barely three weeks ago, Tim Tebow slipped to third team Saturday night, behind Kyle Orton and Brady Quinn, even as the Broncos tried to soften the blow to his legion of fans by suggesting it was nothing more than flopping the order of the backups a week ago. In fact, it looked like the right order. Orton and Quinn played like the more experienced, more polished veterans that they are. Among those who watched training camp practices, the Orton-Tebow debate lasted barely more than a day, and Orton has done nothing but increase the daylight between them. Saturday night, Orton was surgically precise, completing 10-of-13 passes with a touchdown for an astrophysical passer rating of 135.1." [Denver Post]

Merch: Managing editor Tom Scocca and contributing editor Drew Magary have both written books. You can buy Scocca's Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Futurehere, and Magary's The Postmortalhere. Now do it.